SPIRITUALITY
Capturing Spirituality’s
Transcendent Strengths
EXAMINING SPIRITUALITY
• Traditional Perspectives
– Spiritual practices in the province of religion
• Modern Perspectives
– Since 18th century, role of religion diminished in
society and popular thought
Defining Spirituality
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Laden with Contradictory Meanings
Transcend and Include
One’s Direct Experience with the Sacred
Originally Referred to Breath and Wind
A Shift to Knowing Your Inner Heart
Being Inwardly Guided
Self-Knowledge: One of the Main Keys
Purify & Follow Your Heart
Your vision will become clear only when you look
into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams.
Who looks inside awakens.
– Carl Jung
Differentiate Between: Spirituality &
Spiritual Materialism
Benefits of Spirituality for
Children, Youth, and Families
• The Materialist Approach
• The Spiritual Approach
• Enhances Appreciation for Every Moment in
Life
• Aids in Answering: Who am I—REALLY?
We are not human beings having a
spiritual experience!
We are spiritual beings having a
human experience. Teilhard de Chardin
•
•
•
•
Brilliant masks
Young Children—Inherently & Naturally Spiritual
Showered with Negativity & Violence
Therefore Face Unique Spiritual Challenges
Incorporating Spirituality’s Strengths
Into Daily Living
• Not One-Size-Fits-All!
• Growing in a Group Can Be Beneficial
• Essential Element: PRACTICE
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then,
is not an act but a habit. Aristotle
PRACTICE ONE
TRANSFORM YOUR MOTIVATION
• Attachments & Cravings
• True Happiness
You use all your vital energy on external things &
wear out your spirit. Taoist Sage
SATISFY OR RELINQUISH?
• Happiness comes from reducing and
relinquishing attachments.
• 1st Step: Examine your cravings
• Bringing Greater Awareness to Cravings to
Weaken Them.
• Reflect on Experiences to Understand Them
and Yourself Better.
• Higher vs. Lower Motivations
PRACTICE TWO
CULTIVATE EMOTIONAL WISDOM
• Transforming emotions is an absolutely
essential practice.
Emotions of the soul should be watched, regularly
examined, & kept well balanced. Maimonides
THREE CENTRAL APPROACHES
FOR ACHIEVING EMOTIONAL BALANCE
1. Reduce painful feelings such as anger and
fear
2. Foster helpful attitudes such as gratitude and
generosity
3. Cultivate positive emotions such as love and
compassion
Supreme Emotion: LOVE
The idea of love has left a wider and more
indelible imprint upon the development of
human culture in all its aspects than any other
single notion.
Encyclopedia of Religion
• Mature love—based on sufficiency &
wholeness
• Love has the power to awaken us!
TURN YOUR TROUBLES
INTO TRIUMPHS
Life is like photography. You use the negative to
develop.
Swami Beyondananda
• Spiritual awareness helps you benefit from all
experiences—both pleasant and unpleasant.
• Asking questions such as, “What can I learn?”
helps you grow in self-knowledge.
Struggle and Growth
The struggle of life is one of our greatest
blessings. It makes us patient, sensitive, and
Godlike. It teaches us that although the world
is full of suffering, it is also full of the
overcoming of it.
Helen Keller
FREEDOM FROM EMOTIONAL EXCESS
The goal is balance, not emotional suppression:
every feeling has its value and significance. A
life without passion would be a dull wasteland
of neutrality, cut off and isolated from the
richness of life itself. But, as Aristotle
observes, what is wanted is appropriate
emotion.
Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence
PRACTICE THREE
LIVE ETHICALLY
The Golden Rule
• Being kind, compassionate and truthful:
– A gift for everyone.
– An essential means for awakening
– Ethical living—a foundational practice
Whatever you do, you do to yourself.
Buddha
PRACTICE MAKES PERMANENT
In the final analysis, goodness becomes
embodied in society neither through might nor
through law but through the impress of a
great personality.
Huston Smith, The World’s Religions
• Right Speech—Words Heal
• Right actions—Doing What Is Beneficial to All
HEALING THE PAST
Spiritual traditions offer general guidelines:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Undo any damage
Aim for solutions in which everyone wins
Avoid attacking/retaliating
Communicate
Learn from your experience
EXERCISES FOR ETHICS
Suggested practices to incorporate into life:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Reflect on your good deeds
Tell the truth (kindly) for a day
Give up gossip
Do no harm
Communicate to heal
Right a wrong
PRACTICE FOUR
Concentrate & Calm Your Mind
Our minds are like crazy monkeys leaping erratically
from branch to branch.
Buddhist Statement
• When mind out of control, life feels out of control
• The mind mirrors whatever we attend to.
• Meditation: process to make friends with the mind
MEDITATION & CONCENTRATION
They have two key elements in common:
• Choose a focus for your attention: your
breath, an image, a word, a prayer
• When attention wanders, gently return to
focus: over & over & over & over & over again
MINDLESSNESS vs. MINDFULNESS
The past is history. The future a mystery. This
moment is a gift. Which is why it is called
“the present.”
Unknown Poet
•
•
•
•
We sleepwalk through life in mindlessness.
Untamed minds have a mind of their own.
Automaticity
Mindfulness keeps us in the present & brings
greater awareness.
SPIRITUALITY vs. SCIENCE
The present fashion of applying the axioms
[principles] of physical science to human life is
not only entirely a mistake but has also
something reprehensible in it.
Albert Einstein
Mindfulness assists us in opening up to spirituality.
– Science is superb for learning about the physical.
– It has virtually no validity regarding nonphysical
things such as meaning, purpose, values, & spirit
PRACTICE FIVE
EMBRACE GRATITUDE,GENEROSITY
AND THE JOY OF SERVICE
Gratitude is an attitude. It bestows many benefits!
Gratitude can be cultivated. Suggestions: Say grace.
Celebrate a day of thankfulness. Recall loving people
Generosity & Joyful Service
The only ones among you who will be truly
happy are those who have sought and found
how to serve.
Albert Schweitzer
Our ability to give grows through stages:
1. Tentative giving
2. Brotherly or Sisterly Giving
3. Royal Giving
AWAKENING SERVICE
• Service is not only an expression of awakening
• It is also a means to awakening.
• Generosity & service can be integrated into
everybody’s life.
• Service transforms daily activities into spiritual
practices.
• Our contributions seem insignificant yet may
be life-saving to those who receive them.
KEYS TO EFFECTIVE
AWAKENING SERVICE
1. Dedicate your efforts to a higher goal.
2. Relinquish attachments to specific outcomes
you desire.
3. Learn from your experience
PRINCIPLES FOR CULTIVATING
GENEROSITY
1.
2.
3.
4.
Seek inspiration from others.
Find how you would like to help
Have the right motivation for giving
Start small
Mother Teresa repeatedly urged:
Don’t look for spectacular actions. What is
important is the gift of yourselves. It is the
degree of love you insert in your deeds.
BUYING INTO SPIRITUALITY
ENHANCING AGENCY AND
HELPING PROFESSIONALS’
OPENNESS TO SPIRITUAL
DEVELOPMENT
SPIRITUALITY’S TRANSCENDENT
BENEFITS
Spiritual practitioners experience:
Greater self-control & self-actualization
Greater sensitivity
Greater marital satisfaction
Use less alcohol & drugs
Suffer fewer conflicts around sex &
aggression
Spirituality impacts a person’s worldview
THE LEGACY FOR OUR CHILDREN
•
•
•
•
•
Transforming Your Motives
Cultivating Emotional Wisdom
Living Ethically
Concentrating & Calming the Mind
Embracing Gratitude, Generosity,
and the Joy of Service